Presentation to the Governors Blue Ribbon Fire Commission

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Presentation to the Governors Blue Ribbon Fire
Commission
Governors Office of Emergency Services Kim
Zagaris Fire Chief Bob Praytor Deputy Chief
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FIRESCOPE

• Firefighting Resources of California Organized
  for Potential Emergencies

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1970 - Southern California Fires

• The fire season of 1970 proved to be one of the
  most destructive on record. During a 13-day
  period 16 lives were lost, 772 structures burned
  and over 500,000 acres of vegetation were
  consumed. This fire siege surfaced major problems
  relating to mutual aid, incident management,
  communications, and multi-agency coordination.
• The United States Congress chartered the
  FIRESCOPE project in 1972 and directed the Forest
  Service to assist the Southern California fire
  agencies in a program to review research,
  development and applications of fire service
  response and coordination.

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1981 Establishment of National Interagency
Incident Management System

• National Wildfire Coordinating Group Adopts the
  National
• Interagency Incident Management System based on
• FIRESCOPEs Incident Command System.
• NIIMS consists of five major subsystems
• - Incident Command System
• - Training
• - Qualifications and Certification
• - Publications Management
• - Supporting Technology

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1989 Legislation SB-27

• Senate Bill 27 created FIRESCOPE as a statewide
• program directing OES, CDF and the State Fire
• Marshall to cooperate in making FIRESCOPE a
• statewide program.

1991 Origin of SEMS
As a result of the 1991 East Bay Hills fire, SB
1841 (Petris) was enacted to establish by
regulation the Standardized Emergency Management
System. The system consists of ICS, Mutual Aid,
Op Area concept and MACS. This took effect on
December 1, 1996.
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FIRESCOPE

• PAST
• A multi-agency effort in southern California to
  improve
• the regional capability to manage wildland fires
  and
• other major emergency incidents.
• PRESENT
• A multi-agency effort in California to improve
  local,
• regional, and state capability to manage wildland
  fires
• and other all risk incidents.
• FUTURE
• A multi-agency effort nationally to improve local
  
• regional, state,and national capability to manage
  all risk
• incidents.

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2003 Development of the National Incident
Management System

• February 28, 2003, the President issued Homeland
  Security
• Presidential Directive/HSPD5 (HSPD-5), Subject
  Management
• of Domestic Incidents, which directs the
  Secretary of Homeland
• Security to develop and administer a National
  Incident
• Management System (NIMS). This system will
  provide a
• consistent nationwide template for Federal,
  State, tribal, and local
• governments and private organizations to work
  together effectively
• and efficiently to prepare for, respond to, and
  recover from
• domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or
  complexity,
• including acts of catastrophic terrorism.

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INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM

• Designed to strengthen the command and
• control of major incident.
• Components
• - Common Terminology
• - Manageable Span of Control
• - Unified Command
• - Consolidated Action Plan
• - Integrated Communications
• - Pre-Designated Incident Facilities
• - Comprehensive Resources Management

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Incident Command System (ICS)

• On-scene responders organize and function under
  the Incident Command System (ICS)
• Unified Command established when jurisdiction is
  shared

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MULTI-AGENCY COORDINATION SYSTEM (MACS)

• Designed to improve resource allocation
• and inter-agency coordination in situations
• involving multiple incidents.

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Function of the MACS

• Maintain current Situation and Resource Status.
• Disseminate information to cooperating and
  affected agencies.
• Establish priorities based upon identified values
  at risk.
• Life Threatening Situation
• Threat to Real Property
• High Damage Potential
• Complexity of Incident
• Allocate critical resources.

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MACS Modes of Operation

• Mode 1 No special actions, Monitor activity.
• Mode 2 Reflects normal fire season operations.
  While isolated major incidents may occur, there
  is no significant impact on regional or statewide
  resources.
• Mode 3 Make required notifications within agency
  and adjacent agencies that are a part of an
  operational area. Provide resource status
  (assigned/available) within one hour via MACS 405
  form. Prepare for conference call.
• Mode 4 Above actions (as appropriate) and send
  agency representatives to the MACS Operations
  Coordination Center.

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MACS Modes of Operation

• Mode 1
• Reflects a non-critical statewide situation. In
  general,
• there are no major or multiple incidents that
  would
• require extended use of MULTI-Agency resources.
• This mode reflects a typical non-fire season
  operation
• for wildland fire agencies.
• Mode 2
• Reflects normal fire season operations. While
  isolated
• major incidents may occur, there is no
  significant
• impact on regional or statewide resources.

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MACS Modes of Operation

• Mode 3
• Reflect a serious situation or the potential for
  a serious
• situation. A serious situation could be a high
  potential
• Incident, which involves the use of resources
  from
• multiple agencies. Generally, a Mode 3 would
  exist when
• one to three such incidents were occurring
  simultaneously,
• emergency situation exists. Sever winter weather
• conditions a forecast for Santa Ana winds, or a
  tsunami
• warning could be sufficient to initiate a Mode 3.
  The
• major commitment of fire suppression resources in
  region
• to an out-of-region incident would warrant a Mode
  3.

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MACS Modes of Operation

• Mode 4
• Signifies the existence of a total regional or
  statewide area
• effort where resource use priorities require a
  concerted
• multi-agency coordination effort. A statewide MAC
  
• operation may be established in Sacramento, while
  the
• Regional MAC Operations would be activated in
  Riverside
• (South Operations) and /or in Redding (North
  Operations).
• Agency representatives, by either conference call
  or in
• person at the coordination center, should be
  authorized to
• speak and commit resources for their agency

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MACS, Tuesday 10-21-03

• MACS process initiated with routine coordination
  among OCC senior staff.
• Phone conversations with Incident Commanders
• Intelligence/ICS-209 reports received
• Resources availability was satisfactory
• Continued monitoring throughout the night

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MACS, Wednesday 10-22-03,

• Initial MACS Conference call with FIRESCOPE
  agencies, North Ops, OES HQ, CDF HQ, IFWU,
  Incident I/Cs
• Updates from Incident Commanders and ICS-209
  forms
• Identified values at risk, critical resource
  needs
• Established priorities of incidents
• Preparing for predicted wind.
• Resource availability remains adequate.

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MACS, Thursday 10-23-03

• MACS Conference calls
• Incident Intelligence Weather updates
• Established priorities of incidents
• Preparation continued for predicted winds.
• Mobilization Staging areas identified and
  agency specific resources mobilized south.

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MACS, Friday 10-24-04

• 0900 Conference call
• Incident Intelligence Weather updates
• Established priorities of incidents
• Resources reassigned from PASS to Grand Prix
• 1600 Conference call, Mode 3 activated
• Significant mobilization to Grand Prix

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MACS, Saturday 10-25-04

• 0900 Conference call
• Call interrupted with a report of a new fire
  start Waterman Canyon
• Interagency Intelligence Group enhanced with
  additional interagency staff to handle volume.
• Established priorities of current incidents x5
• Escalated ordering allocation of resources
• MACS Mode 4 established

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10-25-04 Continued

• Numerous conference/personal calls with
  coordinators locally, statewide, interstate and
  nationally to inventory available resources
• Continuous intel updates and validating of
  Incident Priorities
• CA National Guard Aircraft Requested
• Available Resources from Verdale, reassigned to
  Grand Prix
• Available Resources from Roblar 2, reassigned to
  Cedar Fire

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MACS Sunday 10-26-04

• Conference Call.
• Numerous Overhead and Engines (5-STE)
  reassigned from Roblar 2 to Cedar
• Continued monitoring of current situation status,
  validating incident prioritization and allocation
  of critical resources.
• CA National Guard Resources assigned to
  Cedar/Paradise
• Several agencies unable to send representatives
  to MACS due to extent of local fire activity.

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10-27-04

• MACS Group Convenes at OCC
• Prioritization Resource Allocation meetings
  twice daily followed by Briefing Conference call.
• This was the routine for the next six days.
• At the peak of activity, 14 incidents were
  prioritized and supported.
• Agencies Personnel listed below were
  represented on calls provided for maximum
  dissemination of critical information update.
• Director OES, Director CDFFP, Region5 Forester,
  Chief FAM USFS, R-5 DirFAM, FEMA R9, USFA, DOI,
  LAC, ORC, XSD, VNC, SBC, RVC, BDC, North Ops,
  IFWU, OES HQ, CDF HQ, NICC, OES Region
  Coordinators and Affected OES Operational Area
  Coordinators.

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Routine Allocation Decisions

• MAFFS assigned to operate from Channel Islands
  Facility to best logistically support the
  aircraft and their missions.
• Military Helicopters assigned to Paradise and
  Cedar Fires to utilize local DoD installations
  for logistical support.
• Demobilization priorities were established to
  ensure local government, out of state/region and
  other assisting agencies most impacted by their
  response were released to expedite orderly
  return.
• Guidelines were put in place for OES, CDF and
  USFS resources to be kept in place.

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Continuous Self-Evaluating System

• Were there things that could have been better?
• Can we improve for the next event?
• Is there anything that we could have done
  different that would have changed the outcome of
  the Fire Siege?
• Even as we were in full operations we were self
  analyzing how we could improve for the next time.

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Recommendations

• Initiate Mode 4 declaration when criteria is met
  and immediately send representatives. Consider
  advance staffing when severe conditions are
  anticipated.
• Include affected agencies involved in the MACS
  Mode 4 process to alleviate misunderstandings and
  improve planning.
• Streamline the demobilization process to
  facilitate quicker demob and reassignment of
  resources.

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Recommendations Continued

• Develop plan to provide facilities for increased
  surge of staff at the OCC during high Modes of
  Operation.
• Expedite the relocation of the OCC to March ARB.
• Acquire technology capable of real time situation
  status and incident activity forecasting.

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11-04-03 MODE 2

• 750,000 Acres Burned
• 1,898 Engine Companies
• 181 Bulldozers
• 203 Water Tenders
• 296 Fire Crews
• 167 Aircraft
• 15,631 Personnel